Most of the mass shootings in recent years have a common thread–the gunman used a version of the AR-15 assault rifle. Omar Mateen, for instance, used an AR-15 copy manufactured by Sig Sauer. Now, the family of the gun’s inventor has made a shocking declaration–he never intended for it to fall into the hands of civilians.
Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15 in 1958 while working in his garage in California. He also invented a .223 caliber bullet powerful enough to pierce a metal helmet from 500 yards away. When Stoner showed his masterpiece to military officials, they thought they had finally found a weapon that would be a match for the AK-47. The Pentagon adopted a modified version as the M16, which has been the standard service rifle of the armed forces ever since.
In recent years, a semi-automatic version of the AR-15 has become very popular. Since the turn of the millennium, variants have cropped up in gun stores nationwide. The NRA has taken to billing it as “America’s Rifle.”
But if Stoner’s surviving relatives are to be believed, these developments have the inventor turning in his grave. MSNBC revealed that several members of Stoner’s family had made a breathtaking revelation–the inventor, who died in 1997, did not intend for his masterpiece to be used as a civilian weapon. Watch here.
Several of Stoner’s children and grandchildren, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that based on numerous conversations with Stoner, “we feel that his intent was that he designed it as a military rifle.” The AR-15 made him a wealthy man, but all of that money was derived from military sales. Although Stoner’s family described him as “an avid sportsman, hunter, and skeet shooter,” he never owned any version of his own gun at any time or for any reason.
The Stoners added that Eugene would have been as “horrified and sickened as anyone” that copies of the AR-15 have been used in so many mass shootings. For those who don’t know, the Sandy Hook, Aurora, and San Bernardino massacres were all carried out by gunmen using AR-15 variants.
Chances are that this statement is music to the ears of a group of Sandy Hook survivors. In 2014, they sued Bushmaster, maker of the AR-15 copy used by Adam Lanza, contending that Bushmaster marketed the AR-15 as a civilian weapon when it is clearly a military weapon with no legitimate civilian purpose. A 2005 federal law offers broad protection to gun manufacturers when their weapons are used in a crime. However, the families argue that Bushmaster was grossly negligent in branding the AR-15 as a civilian weapon, and therefore should be held to account.
Heidi Feldman of Georgetown Law School thinks that if the Sandy Hook case goes to trial, there’s no guarantee the families will win since judges aren’t too keen on “far-out theories or highly novel adaptations of established theories.” But when Stoner’s family declares that the AR-15 was intended as a military weapon, suddenly the Sandy Hook families’ argument doesn’t look so “far out” or “novel” anymore.
File this away, folks. If and when we finally break the NRA-imposed inertia on gun control, it may be because of the words of one family.
